Upgrade for 460 SLI?

[ElNiNoSt0rM]

Hi everyone,

Well, the time has come for me "getting the itch" to upgrade something in my system. I'm sure you've all been there. Anyway, a brief run-down of my rig:

i5-2500k OC'd to 4.2 gHz
8GB of DDR3 @ 1600
2x nVidia 460 GTX in SLI
Z68 Asus Mobo (PCI 3.0 @ 16x, etc..I think it's dual 8x in SLI, but not sure...)
850W Modular OCZ PSU
120 GB Intel SSD

I'm a bit generic on the specs since I'm at work and I don't have the time to research each part fully. That should give you a general idea, though.

I was thinking of upgrading the 460's since they are becoming a bit dated at this point. Keep in mind that I game in 1920x1080 resolution (native to monitor) and have had no reason to go higher. I am comfortable at this resolution for all of my gaming.

That said, is there anything in my system that's even worth upgrading right now? I know that two 670's, while a bit pricey, would blow my 460's out of the water. That said, I'm not sure if I really need to be worrying about upgrading them just yet. I have started to see the FPS in a few games take a hit if I really ramp up the settings. I definitely want to be able to do that, of course, without taking much or any hit at my resolution.

What do you all think? Would one 670 be a good start while allowing for a massive upgrade in the future w/ SLI?

 

[Jaydip]

Yeah a single 670 won't be a major upgrade but when u sli it will blow ur current setup.

 

[ElNiNoSt0rM]

Yeah a single 670 won't be a major upgrade but when u sli it will blow ur current setup.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe hold off until the 670 drops a bit and just SLI right off the bat?

 

[lehtv]

GTX 460 SLI is roughly equal to GTX 580. GTX 670 is 20-30% faster than GTX 580. I think you'll be just fine with a single GTX 670 OC'd. You won't still get constant 60fps on ultra in all titles... but not having to fine tune some settings to achieve that isn't really worth another card.

 

[ElNiNoSt0rM]

GTX 460 SLI is roughly equal to GTX 580. GTX 670 is 20-30% faster than GTX 580. I think you'll be just fine with a single GTX 670 OC'd. You won't still get constant 60fps on ultra in all titles... but not having to fine tune some settings to achieve that isn't really worth another card.

Interesting. A 20-30% bump is pretty significant, especially considering the bump I'll get from SLI down the line.

I think I'll stick with the 460's until I actually start playing a game for a decent length of time that actually causes some serious FPS issues. I guess that's what it's all about if you aren't upgrading for the sake of benching or something.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Sli GTX 670 would just be masssive overkill for that resolution.

I would go with a single GTX 670 and call it a day.

 

[ElNiNoSt0rM]

Sli GTX 670 would just be masssive overkill for that resolution.

I would go with a single GTX 670 and call it a day.

You're probably right. Keep in mind that I want to ramp up settings as much as I can without a lot of issues. I realize that some games, regardless of rig, will cause some stuttering with the advent of DX11 and the like, but I want to minimize it as much as possible.

I just figured that it'd be a solid upgrade to plop another one in after a year or two and call it a day until I build a new rig at some point.

 

[Don Karnage]

All you would need would be a single 670 as SLI is pure overkill

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I've found turning up the settings doesn't make the game any more enjoyable and most of the time you'd need a magnifying glass to see the "enhanced" details.

I had a 670 and sent it back and bought a $85 gtx 460 and still have just as much fun gaming as I did with an extra $300 in the bank.

 

[WiseUp216]

I have a friend with OC'd 460 SLI and we were comparing Heaven 3.0 scores (1080p) just yesterday.

670 won by ~20% at default Heaven settings. With everything set to max/extreme the margin slimmed a little bit, but not much.

I don't know what his OC is.

 

[Jaydip]

That's what I was thinking. Maybe hold off until the 670 drops a bit and just SLI right off the bat?

Good idea :thumbsup: but as others have noted sli is not needed @ 1080p

 

[ElNiNoSt0rM]

Good idea :thumbsup: but as others have noted sli is not needed @ 1080p

Thanks for all the posts everyone

I'll probably just stick with the 460's for now until I see a need to actually upgrade them. Everything else in my system is pretty recent, and 1080p is definitely enough to make a bottleneck at the graphics card(s) and not the CPU or something, but that's fine. There are only a few games I haven't been able to "max out" and it's usually for only a few locations in the game.

You really don't think SLI is needed at 1080p? I know it has made an enormous difference on my 460's (unless you're talking about SLI 670's, of course).

 

[Jaydip]

670 is quite powerful to run all games @1080p with optimum eye candy.But there will always be exceptions when u have to turn down the settings to experience a smooth gameplay

 

[Rifter]

Im literally in the same boat OP. I've got SLI 460's and have the itch as well. I was hoping this gen would offer a good upgrade but that was not the case. Im waiting till next gen.

 

[guskline]

The GTX 460 is a great video card and now for the price a great buy. It is, however, 2 card generations old. Nonetheless, it's similar to running 5850s in Crossfire. Great cards for the price and plenty of HP if run in SLI/CF. Limiting factors are 1 g Vram (or in my case I had GTX 460-768s), higher power draw and older tessalation.
Timre did a comparison of 5850s in CF and a GTX 670 and for a single monitor with max res of 1920 x 1080 did not find a big difference.

 

[toyota]

at 1920x1080, a single 670 is fine for 60 fps maxed on all but just a few games. and most of those games run and feel like crap on any system so a steady smooth 60 fps is not possible anyway.

 

[Kastor Krieg]

7850 CF after OC will pretty much blow everything else out of the water, GTX 680 included. And it's cheapo, for SLI/CF!

 

[Termie]

The GTX 460 is a great video card and now for the price a great buy. It is, however, 2 card generations old. Nonetheless, it's similar to running 5850s in Crossfire. Great cards for the price and plenty of HP if run in SLI/CF. Limiting factors are 1 g Vram (or in my case I had GTX 460-768s), higher power draw and older tessalation.
Timre did a comparison of 5850s in CF and a GTX 670 and for a single monitor with max res of 1920 x 1080 did not find a big difference.

Here's my 5850CF to 670 comparison thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2245778

Without hesitation, I can say the 670 is overall a better setup, and just as easily, I can assure you it's an awful upgrade if you're looking at price/performance. Here are my conclusions:

(1) I gained essentially nothing when it comes to averages in games
(2) I increased about 15-20% in benchmarks
(3) I reduced power use by 125-150w
(4) The smoothness of games increased, either due to higher minimums (which I found in nearly every game) or perhaps microstutter.

Unless you are an edge case (i.e., you use multiple monitors or are running a game where SLI doesn't work (are there any???)), this is a poor upgrade path.

7850 CF after OC will pretty much blow everything else out of the water, GTX 680 included. And it's cheapo, for SLI/CF!

Have you actually tried this? Adam_the_giant did and found the crossfire drivers were completely useless: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2244861

 

[Termie]

OP - by the way, which games are you referring to when you say FPS takes a hit at the highest settings?

Another thing I should just mention here - I got a pretty good payback when selling my 5850s, as they still retained good resale value. I've seen 460s sitting in the trading forums for significantly longer, and they certainly can't sell for as much as a 5850, so the total purchase price will be higher in your case than it was for my 5850CF->670 upgrade. In part, I made the upgrade when I did because I knew what the resale value of my old cards was and wagered the upgrade would be worth it. Like I said, in terms of measured performance, it was not, although I do enjoy the smoothness advantage.

 

[Kastor Krieg]

Wow, I did not suspect there being an issue like that. Based on what my 1100 Core 7850 does alone this should've been a dream of a CF. It's even a bit fishy, like AMD did not want the pair to run THAT well... >.>

Sorry, mate, should've looked for sources.

 

[guskline]

Termie: First I apologize for referring to you as Timre. Second thanks for your post. It sure helps the OP decide if it is worth it. A single "vanilla" GTX 670 will run $400 and you will be lucky to get $200 for both GTX 460s.

I wanted to run a 3 monitor setup and was going to spend $$$ for either a 7970 or GTX 680 at the time. The 1g Vram of either GTX 460s in SLI or 5850s in CF shows up in a big way when running 5760 x 1080 resolution. I noticed a significant improvement with a GTX 680. However, on 1 monitor of 1920 x 1080 resolution there wasn't as much "felt" improvement.

 

[ElNiNoSt0rM]

Yeah, all of this information has been extremely helpful. I was a few clicks away from purchasing a 670 but now I realize it's not really worth it right now. That price is going to have to come down quite a bit to make any sort of logical sense.

Games seem to be hitting a "wall" of sorts in recent years. They're jamming more stuff onto the screen happening at once, I guess, but they seem to be reaching soft limitations.

Re: stuttering...Mostly games like BF3, Batman: Arkham, etc.. Very new games. It's really not TERRIBLY noticeable, but I've always been a bit of a framerate perfectionist for one reason or another. The 460's are *phenomenal* and have given me a lot of great gaming. Probably the best card(s) I've ever bought, and I've been through a ton of cards over the years.

 

[Termie]

Yeah, all of this information has been extremely helpful. I was a few clicks away from purchasing a 670 but now I realize it's not really worth it right now. That price is going to have to come down quite a bit to make any sort of logical sense.

Games seem to be hitting a "wall" of sorts in recent years. They're jamming more stuff onto the screen happening at once, I guess, but they seem to be reaching soft limitations.

Re: stuttering...Mostly games like BF3, Batman: Arkham, etc.. Very new games. It's really not TERRIBLY noticeable, but I've always been a bit of a framerate perfectionist for one reason or another. The 460's are *phenomenal* and have given me a lot of great gaming. Probably the best card(s) I've ever bought, and I've been through a ton of cards over the years.

That stuttering you experience in BF3 - yes, it would be better with a 670. Is that worth $400 minus whatever you get for your 460s? Only if you're a perfectionist.

Actually, if I'd been on 460SLI, I don't think an upgrade would have even crossed my mind. The problems with crossfire in a few recent games don't seem to affect it, and that was what most worried me about sticking with my 5850s. Alas, they were amazing in BF3...

 

[Xa3phod]

I am glad I found this post.

I too have 2 GTX 460's in SLI with an I2500K and I was wondering what an upgrade path would be. One thing I found it is that a lot of times the PSU is not adequate for a SLI setup. The rig has been rock solid thus far till I tried to play a beta of an upcoming game (which I obviously cannot mention the name), and the computer started to reboot a few minutes into the game. I did figure it was just driver issues, but using stress programs like prime95 and furmark would not reproduce the crash.
So, I went to this site :http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx?SLanguage=en
I put in my computer specs and low and behold, it told me I needed at least an 800 watt PSU. I am sporting a 600 watt atm. Well, I would tell you if that was it, but I am waiting for the PSU in the mail. I will post if that did the trick. I wonder if a proper PSU would increase performance?

Thanks for the great thead.

 

[jacktesterson]

the 7950 deals would probably be the best deal, especially if you OC.